Assessment of Gender Participation in Rice Production in Abakaliki, Nigeria

The study investigated the participation of male and female in rice production. Abakaliki Local Government Area was purposively selected because of its dominance and popularity in rice production.  A total of hundred and sixty (160) male and female respondents were randomly selected from registered rice producers. Primary and secondary sources of instruments were employed and data were analyzed using descriptive statistics as frequency counts, percentages mean and standard deviation. T-Test and Product Moment Correlation was used to test the hypotheses. The result of the study showed that female farmers participated more in rice production chain than males in the study area. Activities like weeding, threshing, winnowing, cleaning, parboiling, dehusking etc. were dominated by the female farmers. Educational qualification ( r=-0.323**, p˂0.139) had a negative correlation which implies that the less educated participated more in rice production activities. It is therefore recommended that whenever there is the need to build the capacity of rice farmers, female farmers should be trained in simple/local languages that they can easily comprehend in the study area since they are not as educated as their male counterpart. Keywords: participation, gender, rice production, Abakaliki. DOI : 10.7176/JBAH/9-12-04 Publication date :June 30 th 2019